Singapore's Exports Rise 13% On Year in January

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SINGAPORE--Singapore's key non-oil domestic exports rose faster than expected in January, helped by a low base of comparison from last year.

Exports of goods made in Singapore rose 13% in January compared with a year earlier, after a 3.1% gain in December, trade promotion agency International Enterprise Singapore said Thursday.

The median estimate of eight economists from a Dow Jones Newswires poll was for January exports to expand 9.1% from a year earlier, partly due to the timing of the Chinese New Year holidays in January last year.

Compared with the previous month, exports fell 0.3% in seasonally adjusted terms, after contracting 1.9% on month in December, mainly as shipments of electronics products declined. The poll of economists had projected 4.2% growth in January.

Electronics exports declined 3.9% on year, after falling 5.3% in December, though non-electronics shipments grew 20.7%, compared with a 6.8% rise in the previous month.

In the non-electronics sector, pharmaceutical exports fell 8.7%, after growing 7.0% in the previous month.

The city-state's shipments to China, its biggest export destination, rose 3.3% in January from a year earlier, compared with a 6.0% on-year fall in the previous month, IE Singapore said.

Exports to the European Union rose 16.9% on-year after rising 22.1% in December, while exports to the U.S. rose 53.4% after the previous month's 16.5% increase.